The Shadow Queen: The Wolfrik Trilogy | Book 2, page 1
The Shadow Queen
The Wolfrik Trilogy | Book 2
Copyright © 2021 by K. Rea
No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
To contact the author, please use the contact form on her website; kreaauthor.com
Publishing Company Contact Information:
Kreative-Books, LLC
Bradenton, Florida, 34211
hello@kreative-books.com
kreative-books.com
Cover & Interior Design by Danielle Doolittle | DoElle Designs | www.doelledesigns.com
Editing by J.G. | CamRei Editing | https://www.facebook.com/CamRei.Editing
DEDICATION
To my Viking,
Fate made sure we ran into each other.
Thank you for being by my side in the crucible.
I love you.
~ K.
BOOK DESCRIPTION
A SMOLDERING COURT.
A DIVIDED PEOPLE.
A WARNING FROM THE GODDESS.
With the Court of Shadows in ruins, Evelyn Wolfrik has one goal - to rebuild.
After an encounter with the God of the Forest himself and a summons from the Court of Light, Evelyn’s future seems anything but certain.
Leaving the forests, her pack, and fledgling Court behind, Evelyn travels to the white mountains of the Court of Light. Deep in the mountains, navigating not only a frigid court but also challenges and trials she never could have foreseen, she risks losing more than just her crown.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
This novel is intended for mature audiences only.
This is a steamy shifter romance containing;
explicit language, sexual scenes, violence, and adult situations.
I repeat, there are scenes of a very sexual nature
compared to The Moon Shadow | Wolfrik Trilogy, Book 1.
If you’re not okay with that - please stop reading.
Otherwise, Enjoy!
Contents
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
TWENTY - ONE
TWENTY - TWO
TWENTY - THREE
TWENTY - FOUR
TWENTY - FIVE
TWENTY - SIX
TWENTY - SEVEN
TWENTY - EIGHT
TWENTY - NINE
THIRTY
THIRTY - ONE
THIRTY - TWO
THIRTY - THREE
THIRTY - FOUR
ONE
The darkness of the woods was anything but a comfort. A monster hunted me. In this case, more than one. My lungs burned with exertion as I ran, my claws digging into the hard ground beneath my paws. Mason was not far behind me, trying to guard my flank. The forest grew dark around us as a roar rattled the trees. Mason growled, nudging me in encouragement as he ran past over the sloping forest floor.
An unnatural wind swirled around us as a dark shape darted into the treetops above. I wove between the trees, away from the wind even as smoke threatened to surround us. The smoke masked Mason’s scent, and I lost his trail. Even as I paused in the shadow of a wolf tree, his howl ripped through the air. Mason couldn’t circle back for me this time; his howl was a warning he was dealing with his own monsters.
Run, the wolf within urged.
I felt for my mate, Aiden, in the bond, but it was silent. The only sense I could get of him, from his dragon, was a wave of frustration. It had been three days since we had been able to verbally communicate mind to mind. We couldn’t communicate with words through our bond since we woke up in each other’s arms after his transformation from vampire prince to dragon shifter. It was clear the bond was different. All I could feel was the flickering of emotions rolling off him when he was in dragon form unless we were directly touching.
The wind picked up. Leaves and branches rustled before another roar erupted, rattling the trees. The monsters had found me. Black talons flashed in my vision before they gripped my wolf’s form, pinning me to the ground—the dragon’s prize. There was no point in fighting this time. I was well and truly caught. Fury rippled down the mate bond as the midnight dragon wrapped his talons around me and spread his wings.
Mine, the wolf growled.
Mason howled in the distance in frustration. The dragon huffed at me, and I shifted into human form to look up at the scaled muzzle. A savage scar curled around the sides of his jaws.
Ares.
He beat his wings twice before we lifted from the ground.
Fire erupted around us in rolling waves. Aiden’s roar caused the air to tremble and the trees to rattle before he collided with his twin. We tumbled together in the sky as Ares roared and clutched me to his dragon chest. Aiden snapped at Ares’ tail as the ground grew closer.
Ares dropped me.
Purple smoke flooded the ground, giving me a moment of anxiety before it swirled beneath me and cushioned my fall as the dragons snarled overhead. Twin forms viciously attacking each other. The Court of Shadows’ Dark Prince and the Prince of the Court of Light were at odds. Their conflict was barely contained in public, as their dragon tempers got the better of them.
They fell together. The purple smoke dissipated before they hit the ground with a bone-crushing force. The forest floor shuddered at the impact. Both dragons shifted back to their human forms. They were slow to rise, dazed from the fall. Aiden flipped around to look at me, his gaze inspecting me from head to toe for injury.
My monster, my beast.
“Are you alright?” Aiden asked as he clenched his fists. The air shimmered around him, his fury barely in check. My stoic vampire was gone. He had a temper I hadn’t expected. His emotions burned bright for all to see now that we had unleashed his dragon.
“She’s fine. No thanks to you. You could have killed her with that stunt!” Ares barked as he rose from the ground, approaching Aiden.
“Me? What about you? You dropped her! She doesn’t have wings. She can’t catch herself!” Aiden argued, meeting him in the middle of the ring of scorched trees and trampled earth.
“She wouldn’t have needed them if you hadn’t tackled us from the bloody sky!” Ares bellowed, stepping closer. “This is a training exercise!” The whole situation was about to escalate beyond a few singed trees. I could feel it simply by the rise in temperature around me. Their tempers were out of control.
“To keep her safe, I will do anything it takes and more,” Aiden promised.
“This is not a battlefield!” Ares growled and swung at his head. Aiden dropped and tackled Ares to the ground again before delivering a blow to the head. He flipped Aiden over his head, grappling him from behind as flames erupted along both their bodies. They growled and snarled at each other. I could see talons peeking through their fingers at one point.
I took a step forward to get between them. The crackle of leaves behind me was the only warning I had before I felt the cool touch of a blade against my throat. For a moment, a whisper of fear snaked up my spine. Gaius, the vampire Blood King, was dead. Aiden killed him in his transformation from vampire to dragon. Gaius was dead, but his vampire children—Alex and Ciara—lived. Ciara could be in these woods waiting for me, ready to end the fight I had barely survived before. I growled a warning as I prepared to shift and attack the owner of the knife.
“Not another step, my Queen.” The order was a soft whisper in my ear from a familiar voice, feminine. The knife never drew blood as she pressed it to my skin. I relaxed and breathed out the tension coiled in my core. Friend, not foe, held a blade to my throat—all part of the training exercise.
“You both failed at that job. Now your Queen is dead. Do I need to explain what you did wrong?” Royce asked, annoyed as he emerged from the woods with Maye at his side. Mason emerged from the forest in wolf form before shifting back to human. Both men stopped fighting on the ground. Aiden pushed Ares away from himself as he rose to his feet.
“What the hell, Eves? You let Ruby walk up behind you while the lizards rolled in the dirt?” Mason scoffed. The two grimy ‘lizards’ grunted. They each had their fair share of cuts and bruises to go along with the debris and ruined clothes.
“My thoughts exactly,” Ruby said. She moved her knife from my throat as she moved to stand next to me, giving me a pointed look. “Fight me next time. You can’t hurt me—much.”
“And you, why did you leave your Queen behind?” Royce asked Mason, who simply glared in return.
“We got separated. I didn’t leave her,” Mason argued.
“You don’t get separated from your Queen if you want her to continue being your Queen,” Royce said, annoyed.
“She hasn’t even decided if she wants to be queen. Why are we spending the day doing this?” Mason asked. “We need to be planning for tomorrow.”
“She won’t have the chance to decide if Ciara, Gaius’ followers, or anyone else angling for the crown gets to her first. You’ve all proven you’re incapable of protecting her from each other, must less anyone else at the moment,” Royce argued, stepping up to Mason. Nose to nose, Alpha wolf to Alpha werewolf.
The Alpha werewolf was reserved typically. I suspected there was more to Royce Campbell than he let on. If money was on the line, I’d bet it all on Royce. He had wiped the gym floor with me plenty of times while sparring. Back when we were lying to each other before I found out he was captain of Ares’ guard and was sent to spy on rebels in Seattle. He was looking for a rumored moon shadow that shouldn’t exist. A moon shadow only Scarlett, the renegade witch he loved, had seen in her visions. He found me and trained me, hoping to introduce me to the Court of Light as an ally. If I thought he took his training responsibilities seriously before, I was wrong. This time, it’s my life, not my pride at risk, and he knows it. He’s a brutal trainer.
“Don’t test me, Alpha. You won’t like the results, boy,” Royce threatened, even as his stance relaxed. I recognized that stance. It wouldn’t go over well with the rest of my fledgling court if a visiting werewolf put the only moon shadow alpha that supported me on his ass in front of me.
My fledgling court.
Damn.
Long live the queen, however long I may reign.
“Mason, stand down. We don’t have time for this,” I ordered, allowing my alpha command to edge my voice. Royce smiled as Mason glared and begrudgingly backed down.
“Maye, thank you for catching me. I don’t particularly like the idea of falling from the treetops,” I said as I crossed my arms and scowled at the two dragons across from me. Ares glowered and nodded while Aiden looked about, ready to torch the forest.
“My pleasure, Evelyn,” Maye crooned. Her skin glowed faintly in the dim of the forest.
“Why didn’t you run, Evie?” Royce asked with a knowing look—he knew precisely why. The two dragons were butting heads at every turn and a major distraction. I hesitated in responding.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Ruby purred with a wicked smile, filling the void left by my hesitation.
“Yes,” I grumbled. “I stopped focusing on the game to watch them fight, trying to decide if I should intervene.”
“She’s newly mated. She’s bound to be unfocused,” Aiden answered with a smirk of his own.
Mine, the wolf within me, growled appreciatively.
Like me, Aiden was looking worse for wear, but the dirt, soot, and clothing torn from the fight had done nothing to lessen my attraction to him. You could even say he looked better, a little rough around the edges and wild. His dragon, burning close to the surface, beckoned me to play in his flames.
“Which is more of a reason to train. She needs to learn to focus regardless of anything else going on, or she’ll be vulnerable. Next time you’re attacked, don’t stick around for the show. Maye, can you take us back to the edge of the forest? Same teams—Ruby and Ares, Mason and Aiden. We’ll do this again—capture the queen. Ruby, you’re with Evie this time,” Royce ordered, pulling my focus away from Aiden. Everyone huddled around Maye, ready to reset.
“Not you two—you can fly back and burn off some steam along the way. I can’t move them and your egos again,” Maye said. This was the eleventh, or was it the twelfth time playing this ‘game’ today? Every single time it ended in broken trees, flames, and a fistfight. Aiden grunted and Ares sighed. They glared at each other, a mirror of one another, just a tad out of sync. Ares shifted form and took to the sky in a blur of midnight blue.
“I’m coming for you, little wolf,” Aiden purred with a wink and a smirk as flames and scales overtook him. He spread his wings, flapping them once before lifting into the air and darting through the trees. Even when he was out of sight, I could feel his desire coursing through the bond. He was done playing in the woods. A shiver played its way down my spine in anticipation of what he would do when he finally caught me and we were alone.
“Dragons,” Royce muttered, clearly exasperated. “Maye, if you please.”
Anxiety-inducing purple smoke filled the area in billowing columns as a pulling sensation weighed me down, anchoring me to the ground. When the smoke cleared, the familiar ebony black palace walls stood in front of us, the forest behind. Ruby stood there, toying with a small knife, while Mason grumbled and rolled his shoulders. Maye and Royce were whispering, heads bent close again. I turned to watch the two navy pinpricks grow more prominent against the skyline.
The dragons were coming.
Seeing them flying together, swirling in the sky as they picked on each other, seemed fitting. It reminded me of the family pack runs before my world was flipped upside down.
Ciara ended that for us when she murdered my parents for revenge and in pursuit of a crown of her own. She escaped my vengeance in a cloud of smoke. She was out there still, somewhere in the darkness, waiting. I was determined to be ready for her if she dared show her face again. She deserved a darkness-damned reckoning for what she had done.
“Royce, I don’t have another run in me today. Can we pick this up again tomorrow after the court audience?” I asked, watching the brothers’ approach. Royce looked at me, then behind me, and frowned. I turned to see what he was scowling at as he walked past.
“Yes, we can pick this up tomorrow,” Royce agreed as he approached Scarlett. He met her in the field, and they turned and walked into the palace ruins together without a backward glance. Her hair was loose and vibrantly purple around her shoulders; even from this distance, I could see the tension in her stance.
“That can’t be good,” I murmured.
“If it’s important, he’ll tell us. Or Ares, at least. Though I suspect it’s only news from her family. News travels fast when you want to keep it a secret, especially if your fondness for violet hair is well known in some circles,” Maye whispered as she stood next to me, watching the couple depart.
“Her family?” I asked.
“You have many trials ahead of you. Not everyone will support you as Shadow Queen. Many will wish you to fail,” Maye warned. “They do not want another moon shadow on the throne when they could have one of their own kind.”
TWO
It had been three days since the last time Aiden attacked the palace looking for me, but the smell of smoke and ash still hung in the black hallways. The oak door to Aiden’s quarters slammed shut behind me. The heavy wood blocked out most of the construction noise that echoed through the palace halls as the inhabitants returned to rebuild their ruined home. Aiden’s fury in the wake of the Court of Light’s takeover was not a gentle transition of power. The palacewould bear scars of it for generations to come. The door helped to block out the sounds around me, but it didn’t stop my thoughts. The insecurity, the anxiety, the question of if I could really be the queen of a Court? Orion relinquished his right to the throne. Ares offered it to me if I wanted it. The people seemed to support the idea of another ruling Wolfrik; they welcomed it with open arms. Everyone was happy with the demise of the Blood King except for the vampires, the few that Aiden left alive.
The offer of the throne was unexpected at best, the realization I was an alpha in my own right overwhelming. Could a moon shadow lead the Court of Shadows? A she-wolf that never had a pack outside of her own family? A wolf that never had to answer to a Court and didn’t bother to learn anything about them?
The Court of Shadows.
The Court of Light.
The Court of Darkness.
The Court of Starlight, Goddess blessed.
The Abyss of the Forgotten.
I didn’t have a clue where to start, but I had Aiden, Ares, and Mason willing to help me learn. The last three days were nonstop training, learning, and loving as we worked to stabilize the Court of Shadows and began the healing process for all.
